United States

Authored by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,

Does anyone in the Trump Administration have a clue about our Syria policy?

In March, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appeared to be finally pulling back from President Obama’s disastrous “Assad must go” position that has done nothing but prolong the misery in Syria. At the time, Tillerson said, the "longer-term status of President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people."

Over the weekend, when looking at the record high ratio in median new home sale prices to household incomes in the US, we concluded that US homes have never been more unaffordable for the average American.

What about renting? Isn't it intuitive that if buying a house has never been more expensive, then at least renting should be cheap(er).

Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

There’s been something happening this month that very few people have noticed.

It’s been lost beneath all the other headline-dominating news, from the Las Vegas shooting to Harvey Weinstein to the Mueller investigation.

But very quietly behind the scenes there’s been an extremely rapid uptick in the US national debt.

In the month of October alone, the US national debt has soared by nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars.

For all the talk about Paul Manafort's indictiment, one can't help but feel that there is a distinct undercurrent amid today's newsflow focusing on Hillary Clinton: from the resignation of one of the most powerful Democrats, Tony Podesta, who earlier today parted ways with the lobbying firm he founded after it became ensnared in the Mueller probe (and who is also brother of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta) to the sudden reemergence of the Benghazi attack narrative, one wonders if Trump is not preparing to launch a broadside attack on his former presidential challenger.

U.S. futures slid 0.2% as investors await a barrage of announcements including Wednesday's Fed decision, Friday's jobs report and, most importantly Trump's imminent announcement of who the next Fed chairman will be, although after the latest trial balloons, Jay Powell is now largely priced in. Asian equities edged modestly higher despite a tumble in Chinese stocks and bonds with Japan's Nikkei closing 3 points in the green, while European shares hold steady after concerns eased about the Catalan crisis with no notable developments over the weekend, pushing Spanish stocks and bonds higher.